> I like his comment: > > "Now comes the one sentence I told you about, explaining why Linux is nowhere to be found on > your average end-user non-geek desktop: The worldwide established standard data format for > exchanging word processing documents is Microsoft Word files, and no Linux distribution I know of > comes with an open source program that can handle them." > > What a load of garbage, so lets imagine a world with MS Word support in linux, the majority of > computer users (i.e. the non-technical non-geek types) who can't deal with installing windows let > alone installing linux will flock in droves.... I don't think so.
I didn't think the article made a good argument. Sure, Linux does need to have an application (not necessarily open source) that can read word files - mainly because people who didn't know better have been encrypting their data with MS-Office. But there are already several (Star Office and Open Office spring to mind, but aren't exclusive), some of which are open source. And my RedHat 7.1 distribution came with Star Office 5.2, so that's not the issue either. More to the point, which Windows distribution comes with any program to handle word files? You need to spend more money for that. - Mark
